Scotland, Speyside. Distillery closed. Owner: Pernod Ricard.

Founded in 1897 by Thomas Mackenzie (owner of Dailuaine-Talisker Distilleries Ltd) to provide relief to its close neighbour Dailuaine, Imperial was in production for only a few months from the summer of 1898, before closing in 1899. In the space of just one century, the distillery was closed more often than it was in production. Its malt would be used in leading blends such as Teachers, Long John, Old Smuggler and Ballantine's, leaving little room to develop a range of single malts. Only Allied Distillers, which became the owner in 1989, would offer a 15 year old version in its Special Distillery Bottling range. For the rest, one would need to dig through the stocks of independent bottlers, and yet here also they are generally rare. Imperial is definitively an endangered malt.

An Imperial 18 year old distilled in 1995 and bottled at cask strength in 2013. La Part des Anges is an independent bottler founded in 2005 by Thierry Richard and Laurent Buob, specializing in whisky, champagne and cognac. A limited edition of 210 bottles.